Sena ready for a duet with NCP

TNNMar 21, 2007, 01.31am IST

MUMBAI: A day after Sharad Pawar spurned the Congress offer for alliances, it's now Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray's turn to give a call for forging a joint front against India's grand old party. Known for his on-record candid observations, the Sena chief on Tuesday openly indicated that his party and Sharad Pawar-led outfit, the NCP, can come together and form a front against the Congress.

His call came a day after the Maratha strongman made his displeasure known over Congress' 'two horses' comment. The Congress on Sunday had criticised Mr Pawar for his tie-up with the Sena to keep it away in Pune. "Riding two horses is not only bad for political health, but also very confusing to the electorate," party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi had said.

The Congress is upset with Mr Pawar, particularly because he has presence in both sides of the political spectrum. He uses the Congress to flaunt his secular credentials and at the same time, uses his connections with the Sena and the BJP to keep the Congress at bay. Mr Pawar shot back on Monday, pointing out instances of the Congress hobnobbing with saffron and other 'coloured' parties. "If we are riding two horses, the Congress is certainly on more than three," he said.

On Tuesday, the maverick Sena chief tried to humiliate the Congress further by openly advocating the NCP-Sena-BJP triangle. "Such an arrangement would augur well for Maharashtra," Mr Thackeray said in Mumbai. "I have said it in the past, and am saying it today that an alliance between our two parties would be in the interest of Maharashtra's development," the Sena chief told reporters at his suburban Bandra residence, Matoshree, here.

It may be recalled that the such an alliance had almost been formed in the run-up to the last general elections. The NDA, a motley bunch of over dozen parties, was on the verge of admitting Sharad Pawar into its fold in 2004. The premature disclosure of such an activity had forced Mr Pawar to shelve his NDA plan then.

Now, Mr Thackeray is reviving the same old, though untried, equation. "Pawar is an old friend and I have been saying that if the two parties come together, it would be in the interest of Maharashtra," Thackeray Sr said. The Sena chief had hinted at such a synergy through an editorial in the Sena mouthpiece Saamna last year and had also expressed similar views at the launch of his photo-biography in 2005, during which Mr Pawar too was present.

Asked about Sena's alliance with the NCP in the Pune Municipal Corporation, the 80-year-old Thackeray quipped: "The two parties together can do a lot in the state." However, Mr Thackeray's remarks have come when his sainiks and NCP workers have hit the streets in Navi Mumbai against their possible partnership for the local municipal body. In Navi Mumbai, eight rebel Sena corporators are supporting the NCP, which the Sena wants to prevent at all costs.